The statutory right to be accompanied factsheet

The right

Under the Employment Relations Act 1999 a worker is entitled to be accompanied at certain disciplinary and grievance hearings. This right applies to all workers, including temps and contract workers, but not the genuinely self-employed.

The right is to be accompanied by a colleague or a full-time trade union official who has been certified by the union as having experience of, or training in, acting as a worker’s representative at such hearings.